


Children Of The Sea

by torspringe



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Gen, Headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 03:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2566064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torspringe/pseuds/torspringe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One different drabble for each character's childhood according to my headcanons and one thing in common: the sea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Children Of The Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Not quite sure how this thing was born, I was playing with the idea of the sea and children who lived by it and then I thought: why not making this about Black Sails?
> 
> N.B. watch out for little nods to her actual historical life in Anne's drabble, though I took liberties.

Max is breathing eagerly. She remembers what her mother says, she must breathe slowly but deeply, let the water out of her lungs. Max does what Mother says. That’s what good little girls do.

Father must have had no one to tell him so, for once he went out on the sea and didn't return. He must have let the water in his lungs and drowned. Max's not going to do the same. She swims and she breathes.

 

***

 

Run, little Charles. You must run. Remember what Mother says, when the men enter the door you run. You run and don’t look back. Get in the water and hide till noon, that’d be enough. Don’t get in the way, don’t let them see you – men don’t like to see kids around when they visit Mother.

Just stay in the water. The sea shelters you.

 

***

 

Anne has escaped. Father didn’t see her and the governess didn’t too. Anne is running through the grass, free. She doesn’t like it when they call for her to come back, why should she come back? The house is boring and the sea is good fun.

Anne can stay in the water all day long. She wants to do that all the time but they don’t let her. Be good, be proper, stay seated. Don't play with your dinner knife. The sea doesn’t tell her what to do. Anne loves the sea.

 

***

 

Your name is Jack and you know it because everyone keep saying it. From when you wake up till when they yell for you to go to sleep. Jack Jack Jack. Always Jack.

The sea doesn’t know your name and it's almost as if you didn't have it. You like it when you don’t have a name.

 

***

 

Billy knows what's inside the water. Grandpa takes him with him one day with a rod in his hands; he seats on the pier and tells him to stay and watch and then he throws the rod in the water. Billy wishes he hadn't came with him because so much time passes and nothing happens but Grandpa doesn't look concerned.

And then it happens: a fish so big like he's never seen hangs from the rod and Grandpa laughs. Billy looks at the fish and learns that there must be others things in the sea, too.

 

***

 

You are a wayward little child, Eleanor. Father tells you as many times as there are hours in a day and you're taught to think that everything Father tells you must be the truth. Sometimes you have your doubts though, especially when you run to the beach yet again. There you watch as ships approach and men carry boxes and chests. You look at their faces, their untamed expressions.

You ought to emulate them, so you look back at them with eyes fiery as the sea itself so they know you're just like it. You like that they pass you by without scolding you.


End file.
